


Battle Support

by Jackeline Harkness (Jackeline_Harkness)



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Tony Being Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 22:13:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2286282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackeline_Harkness/pseuds/Jackeline%20Harkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Those who knew about their unusual love life thought Tony just kept them around to fight his battles for him: Pepper to deal with Stark Industries business; Steve to protect him while Avenging.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battle Support

**Battle Support.**

 

Pepper stepped into the room, and Tony, still lying on the hospital bed, winced visibly, as if the sound of her stilettos against the linoleum hurt him more than all the previous poking and prodding had.

“Did you talk to the doctors already?” Tony asked before she could say anything. He knew that it was almost impossible to distract her from anything she’d decided to focus on, but he couldn’t help giving it a try. Old habits die hard, indeed.

“What were you thinking?” she demanded in a voice that managed to be worried and angry without actually rising to a shout.

“Can I go home yet?” he tried again, though with less energy than before.

“Were you thinking at all?” she took a deep breath. “Where’s Steve?”

And Tony winced again. Because normally he’d try to get one of his lovers on his side and use them to appease the other one, but experience had long taught him that when it came to what they considered his personal safety, the most likely outcome was them teaming up together to bully him into doing what they wanted.

“He’s busy. SHIELD debrief and stuff, you know?”

Her frown told him he was fooling exactly no one.

“I thought,” she started.

“It was done with two hours ago,” Steve finished as he stepped into the room, with a disapproving expression in his beautiful blue eyes that matched Pepper’s to a quite frightening exactitude. “And don’t worry, we already discussed this and decided unnecessary risks are to be avoided.”

“It wasn’t…”

“I was watching the news, Tony, there’s recordings of the whole thing, so don’t you even try it.”

“Well, it did take out the device.”

“A building collapsed on you,” Pepper reminded him in a tight voice.

“And armor or no armor, the simple momentum was enough to…”

“ _Momentum?_ Steve, you won’t be allowed to hang out with Bruce so much anymore.”

“I’ve always known what momentum is, Tony, I’m from the nineteen forties, not the fourteen hundreds.”

“And regardless of that,” Pepper continued, crossing her arms over her chest, “now you have a cast. Whatever made you think it was ok for you to try and hold a whole collapsing building with your hands?”

“It’s just a splint. And it’s coming off in a week.”

“Ten days,” Steve corrected.

“Details,” he said dismissively, having to bite the inside of his cheek when his jerky movements made his injured arm hurt all over again.

“Keep disregarding those details and you’ll get yourself killed,” Pepper said with finality.

“JARVIS is already looking into improving the suit’s soundness in case such a situation ever presents itself again,” he defended himself.

“Or benched by SHIELD before you can get yourself killed,” Steve added, ignoring him, and Tony almost rolled his eyes at them. They had both become horribly adept at talking over him… he was supposed to be the one who did that, wasn’t he? Then he thought better about it and did roll his eyes.

“Are you two sure you’re not related? You’re scarily similar some times,” and before any of them could answer, he continued. “That’d be kinda kinky, don’t you think? And it’d explain why I even keep you two around. You see, there’s a whole theory about how there’s actually a genetic disposition to…”

“No, Tony,” they both said, and he just spread his hands because the pain meds were fading already and, though he didn’t want to admit it, his injuries hurt enough to be distracting.

“Well, since you’re still alive and we don’t have to busy ourselves with testaments or anything down in legal, I have to make a few calls. I left in the middle of a board meeting back in California,” and her relief was evident in the way she looked suddenly tired.

“Sorry,” Steve apologized, and Tony couldn’t say anything because that was something they did, both of his lovers, take responsibility for taking care of him even when he made the task difficult.

“It’s ok,” and then she leaned in and kissed his cheek. “I’ll go make sure the lawsuit for the latest patent is going well and then I’ll come back, alright?”

The soldier nodded.

“If we go back to the tower before you get back, I’ll let you know.”

And with last resigned look at Tony and a smile for Steve, she walked away, back to fight the corporate battles Tony didn’t bother with anymore.

Of the people who knew about their admittedly unusual love life, many thought that Tony was just being his old selfish, eccentric self, keeping both Pepper Potts and Steve Rogers by his side, to warm his bed at night and fight his battles for him: Pepper for the Stark Industries business, Steve for the Avenging one.

Tony had some major self-worth issues. Most of the time he doubted himself, and the rest of the time, he went straight to self-loath. However, if there was one thing he was sure about, was that he’d never been unfaithful to either of them, and he’d spent hours that turned into days that turned into weeks in pure angst as he tried to figure things out. At the end, he’d tried to break things off with Pepper and dissolve things with Steve before they even started, too afraid that he’d end up hurting them both, even if it ended up ripping him apart. And they’d made the decision for him. It wasn’t a conventional agreement by any means, but then again, neither of them lived conventional lives anyway.

It had been strange at first, that new, unfamiliar stability, and the way Pepper and Steve navigated around each other, as if they were new coworkers, trying to learn how to work together in the admittedly hard task of loving Tony Stark. Tony had been tense for weeks, fearing the moment when they realized he wasn’t at all worth the trouble; even as they slowly transitioned from acquaintances to friends to close friends.

Then, one time, he’d gone up to his bedroom at an hour that could have been considered either too late or too early, to find both of them in his room, in his bed. There was nothing sexual about it, even as they slept close to each other under the covers, and that was the moment he finally allowed himself to relax, to believe that this was real and possible, and that he actually had this two wonderful people in his life, even if he didn’t deserve them. He’d been drained after spending almost twenty hours bent over his bench soldering the complex circuitry of the new Iron Man helmet, and he’d spent at least an hour just standing there, leaning against the door frame, wondering what universal injustice had allowed him this. He might or might not have asked JARVIS to snap a couple or a thousand photographs.

If there was one moment he felt truly at home, and truly at peace with his inner demons, it was in moments like the one that followed that night, when he settled down in his bed, letting the two most important people in his life mother hen him before settling down beside him. Pepper resting her temple against his shoulder, softly asking him, maybe out of habit, to stop putting himself in such terrible danger if he didn’t want to give both her and Steve matching heart attacks. Steve carefully inching closer, mindful of his injured arm, and threatening again to get him kicked out of the team if he didn’t listen to Pepper.

He nodded, forcing himself to remember that he didn’t have to fight the sleepiness that was quickly overcoming him.

If he could have them by his side, he really didn’t give a damn if they never fought any battles for him or even with him. It was in his life, away from battles, where he needed them the most.

**Author's Note:**

> Given the right prompt and/or ideas, I could write more within this universe, I think.   
> So... if you have any, pitch them my way :3


End file.
